Fight the Tories not each other, says Ed Balls

Labour is at risk of turning into a "rabble" similar to the divided Tory party led by John Major, a senior Cabinet minister and one of Gordon Brown's most trusted advisers said on Sunday.

By Andrew Porter and Graeme Paton

10:13PM BST 11 May 2008

Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, made the grave warning as Mr Brown endured arguably his bloodiest weekend since he took over as party leader and Prime Minister last year.

In an interview with the Telegraph Mr Balls said that Labour needed to start fighting "the real enemy, the Tories" and, in a clear reference to weekend publications exposing the sometimes poisonous relationship between Mr Brown and Tony Blair, not try to "settle old scores."

Mr Brown is increasingly being likened to Mr Major in the way his authority is being challenged by his own party at the same time as voters are turning away in large numbers.

Mr Balls warned Labour MPs that the party should remember what happened to the Conservatives in the 1990s.

He said: "Many people, including Cabinet ministers, remember that Labour in the late 1980s and early 1990s had the right values and the right ideas but never managed to get it together, to be united and get the right discipline and therefore never made it to power. Only after 1992 did that discipline really start.

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"We saw what happened to the Conservative Party when riven with disputes. It descended into a rabble under John Major. It was hugely detrimental to the Tory party. Every minister and MP knows that we cannot afford that and we need to be united."

In a clear admission that Labour has also misjudged aspects of the economic downturn, Mr Balls said that not enough attention was given to the rising cost of living earlier this year.

He said: "Focus was on the credit crunch and mortgage market, but while that was going on there was a second change in the global economic circumstances. Oil moved to $110 a barrel, food shortages started, there were knock-on effects for utility bills and there was an impact on living standards.

"People were saying we don't seem to be aware of the way they are hurting. Some of the decisions we have taken have not helped. We need to respond and saying we will listen is not enough. We need to respond and help."

He said the fight for the Crewe and Nantwich by-election was not over and Labour could win. Mr Balls said education policy differences between the parties were a key part of what the public needed to know ahead of polling day.

This week he will push ahead with plans for the school leaving age to be raised to 18, which the Conservatives oppose. And he says Conservative plans for "Swedish" style schools would see budgets for school building programmes cut.

He said: "The idea that we should allow ourselves to be diverted, talking about the past or settling old scores is deeply indulgent. We need to get that message out there. We need to wake up to the fact that the Tories are dangerous."